Jorge Pelegrín-Borondo

Do you Want to be a Cyborg? The Moderating Effect of Ethics on Neural Implant Acceptance

Abstract The development of neural implants to increase peoples memory is enabling the creation of cyborgs (human-machine hybrids) with superior capacities. This paper aims to advance new technology acceptance models by analyzing the moderating effect of ethics on an integrative Cognitive-Affective-Normative (CAN) model to understand the acceptance of brain implants to increase capacities. The model is tested on a sample of 900 individuals segmented by their ethical assessment of these insideables: ethically in favor, ethically against, or ethically indifferent. The results show that an individuals ethical assessment of memory implants explains differences in his or her intention to use them but does not moderate the influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, positive emotions, negative emotions, or social influence on the intention to use them. The results have theoretical implications for technology acceptance models and open new lines of research concerning the future cyborg society.

Dimensions and basic emotions A complementary approach to the emotions produced to tourists by the hotel

Emotions are crucial to explaining consumer behavior. Following an in-depth review of the literature, we identified three types of emotional stimuli affecting consumers: emotions produced by the item being purchased, emotions related to various aspects of the evaluation process, and emotions stemming from factors unrelated to the purchase itself. Previous studies have identified two approaches to analyzing emotions, namely, a categorical approach, which looks at basic emotions, and a dimensional one, which studies the dimensions of the emotions. Although these approaches are thought to be complementary, very few studies have been conducted on the subject, and none have specifically examined it in the context of the tourism industry. We have thus conducted a detailed and empirical study measuring the basic emotions and emotional dimensions elicited by hotels in 841 tourists. We demonstrate the existence of differences in both basic emotions and emotional dimensions among tourists and the additional benefit of using both approaches to study them. The results of this research will facilitate the design of appropriate marketing strategies, thereby helping hospitality managers adapt to the different established tourism segments defined by emotions.

Pricing policies in hotels: a psychological threshold research in online and offline channels

This research analyses the perception that customers have regarding hotel prices at the time of making their final purchase decision. Price perception depends on the analysis of psychological thresholds. When a hotel decreases their prices, will customers really perceive a gain and change their purchasing decision? If a hotel increases their prices, will customers really perceive a loss and change their purchasing decision? There is not a comprehensive model that allows a global vision taking into consideration all these factors. We analyse the state of the art in price policies regarding psychological thresholds and define a global model based on six different price thresholds. We contrast the proposed model focusing on differences between online and offline channels. We analyse a Spanish Hotels sample located in the region of La Rioja. Our results show that perceived gain and loss in price by customers are different for online and offline channels. E-customers are more influenced by hotel selection and the hotel brand. Loyalty and difficulty to compare hotels uniquely affects offline customers. We find as well factors with influence in both channels: promotions and price volatility. Our findings will let hotel managers increase their occupation rate and profitability playing with psychological prices threshold.

Emotions, price and quality expectations in hotel services

Price, service-quality expectations and emotions have all been found to play a key role in customers’ assessments of offers, but little attention has been given to how these variables interrelate. This article presents an original model to study these interrelations. The model was tested on a sample of 841 hotel customers using structural equation modelling. The results show that the stronger the customers’ emotions, the more likely they were to perceive the product as cheap and the higher their predictive expectations of service quality. Additionally, although the observed price level influenced customers’ predictive expectations, the perception of a product as expensive or cheap did not. These findings have important business implications.